1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to fence slat and a fence slat locking system for a fence. More specifically, the fence slat and fence slat locking system described herein may be used to construct a fence with substantial rigidity, weather resistance, and durability. The resulting fence is attractive, customizable, and carries a substantially lower cost than conventional fences.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fences have been constructed to divide one section of land from another, protect animals, corral animals, and maintain physical boundaries since the concept of private property originated. Many types of fences have been constructed in that time including hedge fences (fences made from living plants—cactus, shrubs, trees, turf, and etc.); wood fences; metal fences; stone fences, concrete fences, or hybrid fences made from two or more of the foregoing types of materials. Examples of hybrid fences include barbwire fences which string metal wire between wooden braces and along one or more steel poles designed to hold the metal wire in place at a certain height. Another example includes a stake fence in which wooden stakes are driven into the ground that are wrapped one to another with metal wire.
More recently, various manmade materials have been used to construct fences. For example, temporary fences have been manufactured from various plastics. Construction sites, ski runs, and even roadways typically use a plastic mesh fencing that that is stretched between one or more poles as a barricade to prevent people or animals from accessing a certain area. Other plastics have been used to construct fences such as PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which are more commonly referred to as “vinyl” fences.
Vinyl fences are typically used in applications where the attractiveness of the fence is a concern because they are considered to be more attractive than many other types of fences at a substantially lower cost than those other types of fences. For example, many homeowners choose to build vinyl fences in residential applications to separate one home from another. Corrals that house fine animals may be built using vinyl fencing configured in a horse fence configuration, for example, in an effort to impress buyers or improve the perceived value of the animals. Other applications for vinyl fences include privacy fencing, pool fencing, and pet fencing.
Vinyl fencing, however, has a number of drawbacks. First, because vinyl fencing is typically subject to substantial heat and substantial cold in some geographic locations, vinyl fences have a tendency to expand when heated and contract when cooled. This daily expansion and contraction of vinyl fences as the fence slats are exposed to sun can be detrimental to the structural rigidity of the fence because PVC, the plastic from which vinyl is made, tends to have a relatively low memory compared to metal or wood fences, for example. The term “low memory” describes a situation in which the PVC that forms the vinyl fencing does not necessarily return to its original position and condition when it is heated and cooled. Over time, repeated heating and cooling causes additional play between fence slats, sagging between vertical support posts, and brittleness in the fencing materials. The corresponding structural rigidity of the fence is similarly compromised, allowing the fence to bend and move substantially. Not only does repeated heating and cooling make vinyl fences susceptible to damage caused by physical impacts (e.g. children throwing a ball at the fence) or weather, but also results in decreased attractiveness of the fence as sags begin to develop. Since vinyl fences are typically installed for aesthetic reasons, the decreased attractiveness of the fence over time is undesirable.
Second, a typical vinyl fence relies on plastic slats as structural components that increase the structural rigidity of a vinyl fence. Vinyl fence slats are typically disposed parallel to vertical support posts and are enclosed on both ends by horizontal beams. Tension between the slats on either side of a vertical support post is transferred into opposing forces that push on the vertical support post in opposing directions, which in turn provides structural rigidity to the fence. As the fence slats expand and contract as they are heated and cooled by the sun each day, the slats lose the tension between them, reducing the forces applied to the vertical support posts, and therefore reducing the structural rigidity of the fence.
Third, typical vinyl fences are not customizable on opposing sides of the vinyl fences. While manufacturers make vertical support posts, horizontal beams, and fence slats in various colors, both sides of the vinyl fence are constructed using the same color because conventional vinyl fence slats maintain the same color on both sides of a conventional vinyl fence slat. Since vinyl fences typically mark property boundaries, and color preferences between neighbors may be different, neighbors may often be unable to agree on a color for the vinyl fence.
Accordingly, it is one object of this disclosure to provide a fence slat locking system that maintains the structural rigidity of a fence over time. Another object of this disclosure is to provide a fence slat that locks together with one or more other fence slats to increase the structural rigidity of a fence.
Finally, it is another object of this disclosure to provide a fence slat locking system that is customizable on different sides of the fence.